It was an ordinary summer day in Osaka, Japan. Luv Nakagawa was strolling aimlessly on the roadside. He was a young lad in his 16th year, was a bad boi, skipping school and getting into fights every now and then. He would hang out with other bad pals and smoke cigarettes. But his heart was not there. He was actually an introvert-extrovert with a deep sense of real morality. He was the pillar of his gang but never the instigator of trouble. He wouldn’t tease girls; protecc them instead. Though if bitches messed with him, he’d show them their place.

There were many fighters who wanted to be his sworn brothers, but Luv liked peace and silence, and thus would often ditch his gang & fans to go off-grid to shrines or parks where he could find some peace.

Luv’s mother Kotone was from a long forgotten small samurai clan while his father Shorya was an Indian pirate who used to smuggle rare metals. One day his small ship was destroyed in a typhoon and he was the only survivor that reached the Japanese shore. There he was found by Kotone who took him in and nursed him to health. They fell in love and Shorya decided to abandon piracy and start a new life. They got married and had Luv in a year.

But 10 years later, they both perished in an earthquake and Luv was the only survivor of the family and also the clan.

Luv was taken care of by his kind neighbors who became his guardians but they couldn’t fix the damage the tragedy had caused him. Thus, Luv became a delinquent.

“That’s him, the scumbag who wiped out our gang single handedly last month!” A boy spoke to his friends as a whole bunch of them stared daggers at unsuspecting Luv.

“This is our chance! Let’s get him this time!” Another boy cracked his knuckles.

Quickly they all chased after Luv and soon surrounded him in a rather spacious area.

“Hehehe, now you’re dead boi! We have double the numbers this time!” The delinquent leader said. He was a tall & bulky mean boy. Compared to him, Luv looked rather thin.

Winds blew past Luv’s messy hair. His handsome face revealed no nervousness. His eyes darted around, quickly scrutinizing his opponents. There were 30 boys of similar ages. Most of them had mean faces and strong physiques. They were all carrying rods, hockey sticks and brass knuckles.

Swoosh! Without a word, Luv dashed towards their boss and exchanged blows as the boss reacted, defending his face with his forearms.

Swish-swish-thwok! Two punches missed, one landed on the forearm. The  boss replied with an upper hook but Luv moved swiftly to his side, grabbing him by the waist and lifting him up before bonking his head on the road as he turned him upside down.

Bam! The road shook slightly and the delinquent boss fainted! His head had started bleeding while Luv charged towards his next target.

“Boss!” Someone cried.

“This bastard! Get him! Kill him!”

“Horaahh!!” All of them rushed at Luv from all sides, swinging their weapons.

Bam! Bam! Swish-Thwok! Moves were exchanged continuously. Luv was too fast for them! But they had the advantage in numbers. Since they had all crowded around him, there was no escape. He could only fight to the bitter end. And that is what he did. Luv was trained by his mother from a very early age. He had practiced martial arts every single day for a decade already. Thus, he was able to kick all the asses swiftly.

But one fist cannot match two palms. As the fight dragged on, Luv felt lethargic and started taking hits which became more frequent and soon he was red & blue; bleeding and hurting! But he kept fighting until his strength and stamina gave up.

“Huff-huff…hahaha!” Luv cackled, watching the remaining dozen delinquents who were keeping distance from him anxiously, “Come get me motherfuckers! What are you waiting for!” he snarled.

“This arrogant little…” a delinquent was incensed. He hesitated no more and leapt at Luv only to be knocked down immediately!

“Fuck! Get him! It’s do or die!” Others were filled with rage. The fighting fully resumed.

---

Wee…woo…wee…woo..! Ambulance sirens rang as thirty teenagers were scurried off to the hospital. There was a lone boy still standing in the middle of piled up unconscious bodies. A pool of blood had accumulated under his feet and his hair were covering his forehead and eyes.

“Oye, kid. Did you do this to all of them?” A cop asked with a frown as he grabbed Luv’s shoulder.

“…shit!” He immediately cussed and shook the samurai boy only to cause his lifeless body to finally collapse down. Luv had died fighting! There was only so much damage & blood-loss a human body could endure! That day the Nakagawa clan finally perished.

---

Luv found himself in a trance in an empty space filled with flickering lights. He felt as if he was in a wormhole traveling at light speed and galaxies were flickering past him!

He wanted to speak but could not utter. He felt a sleep paralysis of sorts. For days he felt different sensations and saw different visions. He saw the massive nuclear blast and sirens of war. He heard the clanging of swords and whipping of flags. He heard music, saw floating lamps and white butterflies flying around him. The war-cries and continuous chanting of auspicious mantras mixed together.

“Huff…huff!” Luv perspired and felt his heart thumping aloud! His body was sweating and a fully colored world came up around him.

Whoosh… cool winds blew past him, bringing him some solace. The sunlight had been dimmed by the clouds, letting his vision ease into the new surroundings. This was a forest of tall trees. Birds were singing and flowers were blooming, spreading their fragrance in the winds. Luv took a deep breath and sighed, relaxing.

“I said, it is time for you to pay the fees!” A deep voice startled him. He turned and saw a tall adult sage staring down at him.

“Excuse me?” Luv asked in confusion.

“I said, pay the fees boy.” The sage smiled viciously. “You Ekluvya just said that you have considered me your teacher and learned archery, right? Since you’ve learned from me, it is your duty to pay me the fees.”

“…” Luv glanced at this man head to toe. He was muscular and tall, wearing deep saffron clothes, had long hair tied in a big bun and his beard and mustache were bushy. Garlands of beads adorned his wrists, biceps and neck. There was a red color smeared on his forehead.

“Are you… Sage Dronacharya?” Luv humored himself.

“Of course!” Dronacharya said smugly.

“Heh...” Luv almost laughed. “And I am Ekluvya?”

“Yes, you introduced yourself as such!” Drona looked at the teenager in surprise.

“…” Luv’s mind ran full speed. He knew for sure that he had died in Osaka and then he was in a strange state for several days! But now he was suddenly here in an unknown place.

“So, I’ve been transmigrated?” Luv thought. “From the looks of things, this is the era of Mahabharat and I’m one of the side characters Ekluvya!”

He frowned, focusing on the bigger problem. Sage Drona had been staring at him all this while.

Drona was a legendary person. In this antiquity era, he was one of few best martial arts gurus and he had trained the main characters of the historic epic- Mahabharat. Drona was filled with schadenfreude and had a habit of bullying the weaker people. The many lives he had destroyed were all evidence of his treachery. Yet he retained a renowned revered reputation because his hands were deep in the pants of the noble families. This was a true villain, faking to be a hero. Though according to history, he met his end at the hands of his own best disciple: the main character Arjun! This was a fitting end.

Luv knew about all of this, because of the mythology stories his parents had read to him in the early years. Luv knew all sorts of historic heroic tales from both Indian and Japanese cultures.

Now Luv had become Ekluvya. This person was a young prodigy born in a tribal family. Ekluvya had innate talent in archery. He sought training from Dronacharya but was denied as Drona would only teach the nobles’ children. Ekluvya returned to the forest but in his heart, he had already established Drona as his teacher. He erected a wooden idol of Drona and practiced archery in front of it everyday. His talent rose by leaps and bounds naturally, dwarfing the talent of his contemporary rivals like the legendary MC: Arjun and even the fabulous half-villain: Karn!

One day, Ekluvya was practicing archery when a puppy appeared and started barking around. Annoyed by it, Ekluvya shot a whole bunch of arrows, all at the same time, clogging up the mouth of the puppy without harming it! Such great control over the arrows stunned Arjun and his brothers when they saw the puppy passing by. As fate had arranged, all these legendary figures happened to be training in the same forest area!

Arjun ran to his teacher Drona and whined that there is already someone better than him in archery. Now Drona, who always doted on Arjun, had once promised him that he would make him the greatest archer in the world! As such, the very existence of Ekluvya threatened Arjun’s future prospects and Drona wouldn’t be able to fulfill his promise. Thus, Drona sought out this talented archer and was stunned to find him to be Ekluvya, the tribal boy he had once rejected. Even so, Drona bullied the child, claiming his right thumb as the fee for his ‘teachings’ that he had never actually given.

Ekluvya, being an innocent righteous boy, was thrilled to be able to pay the fees, as it would imply that he was Drona’s legit student! Ekluvya cut off his thumb and also his future prospects, and gave it to the shameless teacher.

And that wasn’t the end of it. The original Ekluvya continued to train archery without his thumb and still got quite good at it. Eventually he got married, had a son but got killed by Krishna! That one troublesome avatar of high God Vishnu himself! But even that wasn’t enough! Years later Ekluvya’s son was recruited by Drona’s side in the war of Mahabharata and was slain by one of the MCs: Bheem. This was truly a tragic fate!

Luv sighed and frowned, before refocusing on the shameless teacher before him.

“Tell me; sage Dronacharya,” Luv asked, “between you and that wooden idol; who is the real Dronacharya?”

“…It is me of course!” Drona frowned.

“Then tell me, is that idol alive? Can it speak, and see?” Luv asked again.

“Of course not. It is just an idol.” Drona wondered what this boy was getting at.

“Then, since you are not the idol and the idol is not real…then it is certain that the idol is unable to teach anyone and you cannot claim credit for its imaginary teachings either as you and the idol are two different entities,” Luv spoke.

“…This son of a cunning witch!” Drona scowled inwardly. He hadn’t expected this lad to be so witty!

“Previously I indeed say that I’ve considered you my teacher but that was me giving you face. But you sure are shameless enough to be banking on that, taking advantage of an innocent boy by demanding fees without having taught him anything!” Luv spat.

“Y-you!” Drona felt slapped. Luv sneered, slapping him harder.

“Tell me, by any chance, this fee that you were demanding…was it my right thumb?” Luv asked.

“…” Silence lingered for a full minute.

“You should leave before I let my tongue loose. For sure, a great sage like you wouldn’t want to listen to the colorful cussing of a layman after you’ve failed at tricking him,” Luv spoke, “unless you are truly shameless and don’t mind running your fame to the ground by revealing your true nature.”

“Enough!” Drona scowled hatefully. He had indeed wanted to fool this seemingly innocent boy, thinking all the odds were in his favor, but he didn’t know how witty this brat would turn out to be! Even if Drona had tried to do something heinously wrong, he still cared for his fame. Surely, he could kill this boy here and now, but crimes like this couldn’t go unnoticed by other sages & that will be detrimental to Drona’s reputation. In this era, one’s virtue, fame or reputation were more important than their lives!

“Hmph,” Luv snorted, watching Dronacharya leave. Then he heaved a sigh of relief and turned to Drona’s idol.

Bam! He punched a hole in the idol’s face.

“Scumbag…” he muttered, “such a shameless teacher will only create shameless students. I need to be wary of this person and all his little goons.”

Luv was correct. Dronacharya was a force to reckon with. He was an Empyrean teacher who taught the nobles’ children only. But that meant he had influential patrons! For someone like him, it was a piece of cake getting rid of an unknown tribal boy. Not only that, almost all of his students were shamelessly evil too, inheriting the character of their shameless teacher. Even the MCs were fairly wicked.

Luv didn’t want to be killed by the scheming Drona and his students and thus decided that he must flee from this forest. And when he did so, the memories of the original Ekluvya kept flashing in his mind, informing him about the terrain, his family & his past. Luv also tried to remember the details of Ekluvya’s future. Hours passed and he entered deep into the forest, going towards his tribe.

“Regardless of why and how it happened, I’ve ended up in this era,” Luv thought, “times are bad, enemies are strong & God Krishna is not going to help me. I must get stronger to survive!” Luv thought as he climbed up a hillock from where he could see the setting sun.

“I did not ask for this. But since I’m here and this is my new reality; I might as well do my best. For sure, I will not go down in history as the original Ekluvya!” Determination flashed in his eyes, matching the sunlight.